


you don’t want to be alone

by cloudii



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Concussions, Injury Recovery, M/M, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, canon up to the s1 finale, keith and lance end up on the same planet after the vortex thing au, then i just go crazy go stupid
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-11-24 00:15:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18158927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloudii/pseuds/cloudii
Summary: “Seems like we got flung onto the same planet. How lucky are we?”“I’m not sure it’s lucky that I ended up with you.”“You’re hilarious.”





	you don’t want to be alone

**Author's Note:**

> hey it’s been a long long while but this has been in my wips for SO long so might as well post it
> 
> tw for almost suffocating/hypoxia (everyone’s okay dw)

Keith woke up to alarms blaring.

His eyes shot open and everything was red. The lighting in his lion was always that way, but this was much more intense. The screens in front of him desperately flashed words that his mind was too disoriented to interpret. Everything was so red. 

Among the loud sounds and flashing lights, Keith tried to slow his breathing.

 _’In and out. In and out.’_  The words repeated in his head, grounding him.

He thought back to what he last remembered. Allura had gotten captured. They fought against the galra. They fought against Zarkon.

They got sucked into some kind of vortex. There was screaming, flashes and waves of color and light. He suddenly couldn’t see his teammates anymore.

It dawned on him, he might be alone again.

 _‘In and out. In and out. Don’t panic.’_  He repeated, trying his best to drown out the alarms.

With his head starting to clear, he brought his attention back to the flashing screens in front of him. He still couldn’t get his brain to focus on the words, and there was so much displayed across the wide screen that he could barely see outside.

His hands shook as he finally took a hold of the controls. “How you holdin’ up, Red?”

The alarms finally stopped, though the emergency lights stayed. Keith had a feeling they were partially set off to wake him, and the loss of noise gave way to finally realizing how much pain he was in. His head was pounding, his breathing had since calmed down but his limbs were still shaking, his ribs felt bruised; it must’ve been a rough landing.

The comforting rumble of his lion replying to him cut through his thoughts. She wasn’t in the greatest condition, but it could be worse.

“Can you move?” Another rumble shook throughout the ship; she could move some but it was difficult due to the outside. “The outside?” Keith moved aside the probably important warnings on his screen and looked at his surroundings properly this time. 

It was dark. Even with his screen clear, he couldn’t see much. They weren’t floating in space, as far as he could tell. It was almost like they were underwater, but the water seemed different. Thicker.

Keith pushed the controls forward experimentally. It was like they were swimming through syrup. Red felt tense and strained, like moving even a little required a lot of effort. He gave a pat to the dash. “I think you’re in rougher shape than you let on, Red.” She denied his claim, but Keith wasn’t surprised by that.

He sighed, they weren’t getting anywhere like this. He reached for the comms. “This is Keith, the Red Paladin of Voltron. Does anyone copy?” Static filled the air. He tried again. “Shiro? Lance? Anyone? Can anybody hear me?”

Nothing. Keith’s head hit back against his chair in frustration, he really was out here alone. Or the substance he was stuck was blocking the signal. He was starting to feel claustrophobic, his breathing fastened and his head felt light. He just wanted to get out of here. He shook his head and took another long, deep breath. Arms shaking, he grabbed hold of Red’s controls once more and pushed. “We’ve gotta keep trying.” Red agreed. 

The lion pushed herself a little harder, putting forth all her effort to swim up. It was a slow going process, Keith wasn’t sure how much time had passed. But as they got closer to what he hoped was the surface, it started to brighten. With his newfound —and somewhat blurry— vision of his surroundings, he could see alien flora and fauna swimming around him. None of them seemed to pay the giant mechanical beast any mind. The closer to the surface they got, the thinner the water seemed to get. But still, Red wasn’t made for the water, and maneuvering her through it felt awkward and strained.

Keith had hoped that his head clear as they got closer to the top, but that muddled, lightheaded feeling never went away. If anything, it was getting worse. Keith’s vision blurred for a moment, then cleared again. The air in his lion felt thin.

 _“_ - _llo?”_  The comms crackled.  _“Hello?”_

Keith’s breath hitched as Lance’s voice filled up the space around him, and he’d never been so happy to hear it. He supposed it was just the thick water that was blocking the signal before. “Lance?” He croaked out.

“ _Keith?_ _Oh_ _thank_ _god,_ _I_ _thought_ _I_ _was_ _alone_ _out_ _here.”_   He sounded relieved to hear Keith, which made Keith's heart flutter in a way he pointedly decided to ignore. He heard a tapping noise from the somewhat static-ky connection. “ _Seems_   _like_ _we_ _got_ _flung_ _onto_ _the_ _same_ _planet._ _How_ _lucky_ _are_ _we?"_

"I'm-" Keith erupted into coughs when he tried to speak, his rib cage ached with every breath. He tried again, “I’m not sure it’s lucky that I ended up with you.” He joked, but his voice sounded weak. 

“ _You’re_ _hilarious.”_ The other paladin responded dryly. “ _And I was trying to be nice for once, way to be the bad guy."_  A pause. _"You.._ _don’t_ _sound_ _too_ _hot, though. How are you holding up?”_

“‘m fine, it was just-“ more coughing, “Was just a rough landing.” Why was the air so thin? His head was starting to spin, his grip on the controls of his lion weakened. It was getting hard to breathe.

“ _Keith?_ _Keith_ _can_ _you_ _hear_ _me?”_ Lance’s worried voice cut through his bleary mind. He tried to speak up, tried tell Lance he was fine, but his breathing was getting more labored by the second and words failed him.

“ _Uh,_ _hey,_ _what’s_ _going_ _on?_ _You_ _okay,_ _buddy?”_ Keith’s vision started to blur again, his voice wouldn’t work.

“ _Just_ _hold_ tight, _alright?_ _I’m_ _gonna_ _look_ _for_ _you.”_ Keeping his eyes open was proving to be difficult, his head was having trouble staying up.

“ _Just_ _hold_ _tight.”_ Lance sounded panicked, Keith didn’t like hearing him like that.

Through blurry eyes, Keith saw the water around him be disturbed. He heard Lance‘s voice but no words could be deciphered. He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t see, everything was fading.

He heard a roar that he knew wasn't Red. And then it was dark.

 

* * *

 

He didn’t wake up all at once. There were brief, sporadic glimpses of consciousness.

The sound of Red opening up, a cloudless teal sky, the feeling of being carried. Voices, lots of voices. Some he didn’t recognize, soft. And one he did, panicked.

A brightly lit room, a gentle breeze. Lance, next to him, then gone. The steady rhythm of a heart monitor. 

Keith’s eyes opened again, and the first thing he noticed was that his head felt much clearer. The second thing he noticed was that he was in a sickbay, the beds in the room all empty but his. He wasn’t in his armor, but instead in loose linens. Near the door were two figures he didn’t recognize.

There were two of them —probably doctors— comparing notes on clipboards. They wore loose, earthy clothes and sort of looked reptilian; they were a tad smaller than an average human. One was green, the other blue; scales covered their bodies, with softer tan or brown patches on their chests. Their faces had the look of a dragon, horns and all, and Keith had to admit they looked pretty cool. 

The green one wrote something down, their clawed hands moving swiftly. Keith moved to sit up, but let out a pained breath and caught his head. It still ached, but much less than before.

The noise alerted the doctors. Upon seeing him, the green alien urgently hissed orders to the other. And Keith meant “hiss” very literally. The blue alien hurried out into the hallway.

“How are you feeling?” The remaining doctor asked, their voice now understandable but hushed. It was almost a whisper.

“Where am I?” He asked, it was one of many questions that were quickly flitting through his mind. 

A small, clawed hand found its way to Keith’s shoulder, it brought a soothing feeling almost instantly. “You’re on Æssemar, Paladin. My name is Owyn. Your companion is okay, my colleague is getting him now.”

Keith let out a sigh in relief, “How long have I been out?“

The doctor took what seemed to be a small flashlight out of a pocket. “About half a rotation, it’s evening now. I’m going to do a few tests, okay?” They smiled.

Keith nodded. Half a day wasn’t the worst, the healing pods took just as long.

Owyn flashed the light in his eyes and had him follow their clawed finger. There was a familiar, calming sense to it, like for a moment he was back on earth getting checked by the school nurse after a particularly rough scuffle. Owyn told him to take a deep breath, he found that the distinct smell of a doctor's office seemed to be universal.

“You’re very lucky to come out of this with only a minor concussion and some bruised ribs, Paladin.” Owyn paused to write something down on a clipboard, “You nearly suffocated, but the Blue Paladin got you to us before things got too bad.”

This was far from the first time he had nearly died in space, but the doctor’s words still sent a chill down Keith’s spine. He couldn't think of a proper response, but Owyn seemed perfectly comfortable with the silence, content to wordlessly finish their tests.

Lance stood in the doorway, still in his armor, with the other doctor in tow.

“You’re awake!” The two aliens flinched at Lance’s loud voice, and the boy looked instantly apologetic. His voice turned to a whisper, “Sorry, I forgot.”

Owyn seemed amused by the outburst while the other alien looked annoyed, but the two doctors decided to give the boys some space. They quickly slipped out of the room leaving just the two Paladins.

“So,” Lance sat in a chair next to Keith’s bed —he faintly remembered seeing him sit there before, when he was still slipping in and out of consciousness— “thanks for not dying on me.”

Keith let out a breathy laugh, followed by a pained gasp. Anything from bending the wrong way to breathing too hard seemed to send sharp pains through his chest.

”Holding up okay?” Lance tried feigning nonchalance in his posture, but an emotion Keith couldn't place filled his eyes.

Keith poked lightly at his rib cage over the thin cloth, it was tender to the touch. “I’m fine."

Lance rolled his eyes, "You're allowed to not be fine, Mr. I Have No Emotions And Nothing Can Hurt Me."

"I'm not-" Same old Lance. Even when he was trying to be nice he had to be an ass. "Whatever, man. I'm fine. It doesn't even hurt that bad." His teammate didn't look convinced. He sighed, "What was with the whole,” Keith made vague hand gestures, “whispering thing?”

“They’re sensitive to sound, I guess. The whole planet is super quiet, from what I've seen so far. It's really pretty, too.” Lance fidgeted around in his chair, “I've just been doing diplomatic shit while you were out, and lemme tell you, it's not too fun when they flinch at every other word I say."

Keith could imagine that. Lance was a lot of things, quiet was not one of them. Lance's voice was naturally loud, he could talk enough for an entire room, and he didn't know when to stop most of the time: him and this planet were a disaster waiting to happen. Keith just hoped he hadn't annoyed the locals too much yet, they might need their help to get out of here and back to their team. They needed to move. He grit his teeth as he sat up more, "We gotta get out of here, soon."

He wasn't expecting Lance to push him back down. (Ow.) "Uh,  _no,_ you need to stay here and get better. Just let me handle this, I'll figure something out. Just, like, rest dude." A teasing smile made its way onto his face, "Or do you not know how?"

"That's not important right now, the team could be anywhere-"

"Hmm.. that sounds like you just don't know how."

"Could you just-"

"Give you some pointers? I thought you'd never ask!"

Suddenly the two were hushed by a passing alien, effectively putting a stop to their bickering. Keith hadn't noticed how loud they'd gotten; Lance always managed to get him angry enough to yell. A few moments of silence passed through the room until Lance finally stood up. The two met eyes, "I'll tell Red you said hi. Focus on getting better." 

And then Keith was alone. He swore. Of course this was the situation he got himself into. Injured on some random planet with no clue where the rest of the team is, his lion worse for wear and himself on strict bed rest; and of all the people to be stranded with, he was with  _Lance_. Lance who hated him for some reason and teased him nonstop and probably wasn't even taking the whole thing seriously. Next thing you know he'd forget about getting back to the team and ask Keith to go sightseeing.

He hit his head against the wall behind his bed in frustration. It hurt, for multiple reasons. He couldn’t find it in himself to care, “Great."

**Author's Note:**

> not sure when chapter 2 will be out, I just love being an inconsistent writer :o)


End file.
